Debra Bites Back

Debra Dickerson...you gotta love her!

I responded to a recent post on Debra Dickerson's blog, The Last Plantation...is the Mind I responded only to the part of the post you see here, not at all being inclusive or considering her comments in their entirety. But she did respond to my comments. If you have been reading my blog, you know that I am a HUGE Debra Dickerson fan. She actually posts and responds personally on her blog. So here is our little dialogue:

Debra Dickerson wrote (partial post):
"It seems obvious to me that the point of life is a) enjoying ourselves and b) learning how to do so without being utter bastards. Given how slowly and rarely most of us learn from our mistakes, only massive do-overs can get through to us. I don't need for this to be true. You'll never catch me harassing people in the park with my flyers, my sermons and my sanctimony. It just makes sense to me -- it actually makes me happy to believe it -- and it guides my actions. Its rationality applied to the unexplainable, its controlling the only thing I can: me."

This was my off-the-cuff response:

Yvonne Thompson wrote:
Glad to see you back, Debra. I've been waiting to hear from you, again. As usual you rev me up and then drop me down with a resounding thud. "The point of life is to enjoy ourselves"? Even a Buddha-Baptist has to know better. Or just remove the Budda and the Baptist from your pseudo faith and just call yourself what that thought indicates, a hedonist. I love you, Debra, you're beautiful. But that statement alone negated everything else in your post...for me. But keep 'em coming, Baby. I'll be waiting.

Reply to this 4/19/2007 8:36 AM Debra Dickerson wrote:

That 'Buddho-Baptist', if you please.

"Enjoying ourselves" includes both idling in the sun and working in soup kitchens or washing the poor's feet. And, anyway, what's wrong with hedonism that isn't irresponsile or at someone else's expense?

Look at what I do for a living -- I don't write soft core porn (ok, I don't publish it) or rake in half a mil on Wall Street every year, both of which I could do. I've turned down most every status-seeking job in journalism and instead squeak by on a pittance to blog for free. So to dismiss me as a hedonist speaks to the arrogance of orthodox religion I mentioned in the post. Your god doesn't want us to be happy?

Nah, I don't think that negates the post and you'll have to work a lot harder to defend your case. I look forward to it.

But I love you too, girlfriend. Keep coming back.

Reply to this 4/19/2007 8:41 AM Debra Dickerson wrote:
And another thing, as for my 'pseudo faith', Yvonne: I'll lay my moral framework up against yours anyday. I don't need a book to tell me what's right and what's wrong (tho I'll take guidance where I can get it). One of the things that fry me the most is the anti-intellectal arrogance that assumes atheists and agnostics think they can do as they please. Remember, you're responding to a lenghty piece of self-criticism (i.e. soul searching). I could just blame my problems on others (and You know who You are) but instead, I'm trying to accept responsibility for my own role in it.

OK. Done now.